A Promise

A Promise

As I sit in the audience my attention seems to perk up as I hear the bride begins her vows. She is promising her groom that she will follow his lead and go under his submission. My first reaction was to look at my sister to clarify that I hear the vows correctly. As a matter of fact I wasn’t mistaken.

I have many questions when it comes to these vows. Why on earth would any woman agree to be put under her man? That just doesn’t make sense to me. Knowing the bride, I was still in shock about these vows. I would never have expected her to choose something like this.

I believe that a marriage is a partnership, not a male dominant relationship. Like in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding the mother says “The man is the head (of the house), but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants.” This quote explains that women do have a say in the relationship as the head and neck work together. There is no reason why they should be controlled by the man. What makes a woman vow to submission under her husband? In this case it was the religion they both practiced, but to me it still doesn’t really make sense. Now days we are trying to get young ladies to know that they can be independent, strong, confident women without the help of a man. What kind of example is this couple setting for their future daughters? Or even their future sons? But I suppose their future children will be taught that submission is okay and it’s just a part of life. Their daughters will be taught to fall into their place, while their sons will learn to be dominant.

This religious based wedding also relates to what we have been talking about in class about how media is shaping woman today. A lot of the time you see avid religious people avoiding the media because of the “bad” things their kids could see on television. But do they realize that they are shaping their own kids by their religious practices. I’m not saying it is a bad thing to be religious but I think a lot of people don’t see both sides to the situation. This is an extreme comparison on both sides, but it does really happen. Kids grow up, and a lot of how they develop depends on their environment. Because of this, religion can have the same sort of affect as the media can. There is not a lot we can do to avoid shaping our children; they will get some sort of influence one way or another.

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